


4 pavilions at Expo ’67 Bill and Leonard visited together, and 1 they didn’t

by notannette



Category: Star Trek RPF
Genre: Gen, Possibly Pre-Slash, canadian history
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-23
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2018-01-05 16:47:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1096251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notannette/pseuds/notannette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy visit Montreal Expo '67 on a publicity junket, along with some other members of the Star Trek cast. They see exciting new technology and learn a wonderful new song.</p>
            </blockquote>





	4 pavilions at Expo ’67 Bill and Leonard visited together, and 1 they didn’t

**Author's Note:**

  * For [triplexpoint](https://archiveofourown.org/users/triplexpoint/gifts).



> Happy Yuletide! I hope you enjoy this, I really enjoyed writing it - and maybe got a little overexcited with Expo '67 fannishness! If you (or anyone else reading this) wants to read more about Expo '67, and see some pictures of the fabulously futuristic buildings and exhibits, check out the following links. They really helped me in writing this:
> 
> http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/expo/05330202_e.html   
> http://expo67.morenciel.com/an/pavilion.php  
> http://expolounge.blogspot.ca/

_i_. _The_ _Telephone_ _pavilion_

“Remind me why I’m here again?”

Leonard was staring at the person in front of him in line, thinking about all the other things he could be doing with his time that didn’t involve spending three nights in close quarters with four people he already spent too much time with.

George turned around and smiled. “You’re here because you want to stay employed,” he said. “And a trip to the most popular World’s Fair ever is not much of a hardship.”

“It’s a telephone pavilion,” replied Leonard. “And I couldn’t even bring Sandy and the kids.”

“The film is supposed to be fabulous. A total immersive experience. So stop being such a grouch.”

To be fair, it was an obvious choice for a publicity junket. The cast of a television program about exploring new worlds visit a World’s Fair celebrating the diversity of Man and his creations. Just think of the headlines in _Screen TV_ – “Cast of Star Trek visits the future, now,” “Star Trek boldly goes…to Canada,” “Representatives of the Federation, at the celebration of Confederation.” And so on.

An announcement came over the loudspeakers, “The next screening of _Canada 67_ will commence in the pavilion’s theatre in 5 minutes.”

Bill bounded up to Leonard and George. “Come on, boys.”

Bill was very obviously avoiding looking at Leonard, Leonard thought. And George and Bill weren’t even friends. All the ‘stars feud’ press was obviously having an effect on Bill. Well fine. Leonard certainly wasn’t going to work any less hard just to please Bill’s ego. He couldn’t help it if the fans liked his eyebrows.

“We’ll never make it in in time for the film,” Bill said, shifting onto the balls of his feet. “Let’s skip ahead and see the telephones.”

George looked at the line and then at his watch. “We’ve been waiting in this line for 15 minutes. And I want to see the film. You go on ahead, if you’re in such a rush.”

Bill turned to Leonard. “Well, how about you?” he said. “They have a videophone!”

Leonard looked at George, and then at the line. “Fine,” he said. “George, I will see you at the next photo op. 1.30?”

In the telephone room, they passed a set of phones set into toadstools, all fully occupied by children holding onto the receivers tightly. Nichelle was already there, studiously reading the information on The Future of Telephones. Bill rushed directly to one half of the Picturephone set.

“Okay, Leo,” he said. “You stay here, and I’ll find the other one! It’ll be just like on TV.” He gave Leonard a quick grin and then disappeared to the other end of the room. It was always up and down with him, Leonard thought. You never knew – but his thoughts were interrupted by a buzzing from the phone in front of him. Leonard picked up the receiver and looked at the tiny screen in the oval television-like monitor. A small image of Bill’s head appeared in colour on the screen, only flickering slightly.

“Hello,” said Leonard.

“Hello,” said Bill, and his lips moved in unison with his words. “Move a little to the right, would you, Leo? Right now your face is cut exactly in half. And say something – I want to see how it works.”

Leonard moved in front of the small screen and peered at it. He’d like to have one of these, certainly. “How are things with Gloria, Bill?” he said.

“For god’s sake,” said Bill, and hung up the phone.

_ii. The USSR pavilion_

The USSR pavilion was right across the water from that of the United States – a swoosh of a building in comparison to the US’s pixilated sphere. Standing out front of the building, Walter read aloud the inscription on the giant silver sickle and hammer: “All in the name of man, for the good of man.” “Not too bad for communist empire,” he said, putting on the accent he always used for filming.  

Gene had said that the cast had to visit the Soviet pavilion. Not that they didn’t want to – it was one of the most talked about pavilions. Leonard had seen the advertisement for it in _Time_ magazine. A bit sensationalist, but he supposed they knew their job about drumming up interest.

Inside the hall, Bill was immediately drawn to the most dangerous exhibit – the pond. “Dibs on the sturgeon,” said Bill. The photographer and minder had to stand in front of the pond to keep him from wading in, and only succeeded through the distraction tactic of trying to get Walter to take a picture in front of the gigantic portrait of Lenin.

“You look very much like him,” said Bill. “Very dignified. Come on – it will be great. You just need to smile less.”

“And you need the beard,” said George. “I could draw one on.”

“Oh no,” said Nichelle. “His hair’s too long for Soviet Realism. We’d have to get him to a barber first.”

But Walter took care not to stand directly in front of the portrait. “I don’t want to come off badly in the comparison,” he said.

Of course, all anyone really wanted to do was go up and see the space exhibit.

“What else are we here for if not to have our pictures taken in front of shuttles, capsules and artistic renditions of the moon?” said Nichelle.

“I thought we were here to learn about infinite diversity in infinite combinations,” said Leonard. He was staring at the replica of Yuri Gagarin’s space capsule.  It looked so small. He couldn’t imagine how someone wouldn’t go crazy with claustrophobia in there. That was the thing with the Enterprise sets – they were so spacious. You didn’t feel like you were in a small tin-can careening through space, confined with fifteen best friends and enemies. But you couldn’t really see the Earth from them, either.

“It is pretty amazing,” said Bill, suddenly standing beside Leonard. “All that work just to escape the Earth.” Leonard could almost feel him thinking. “It _would_ be pretty quiet in there, though, don’t you think?”

Leonard turned and stared at Bill. He’d never known him to be quite so philosophical before. He wondered if the crowds were getting to Bill. Leonard had always thought that Bill craved them. He’d certainly tried to get them for long enough.

But Bill didn’t stay still long enough for Leonard to ask him about it, as he spotted the sign for the pavilion’s Cosmos Hall. “A trip to Mars,” he exclaimed. “Come on, Walter, show me how your people are going to get us all to Mars. Do you think there will be any space women there for me to impress?”

 

_iii. The Canada pavilion_

The whole time they were at Expo ’67, Bill kept singing that song. He started the moment they got on the flight, and didn’t let up for the next week. He sang it on the Metro, at dinner, in the Judaism pavilion. It was driving Leonard crazy, but you could never get Bill to stop doing anything, especially something annoying. Leonard had learned that from their first year of shooting. Don’t even bother. And he had to admit that the song was beginning to grow on him. Leonard found himself humming it when he was buying a newspaper at Steinberg’s near their hotel. “Ca-na-da, dum dun dum, weee loooove yoooou, dum dun dum, hum, now we are twen-ty million”.

They visited the Canada pavilion on the second day. Bill was pulled into a photo op with the Royal Mounted Police. He tried to negotiate with the Mountie to join him up on the horse, but luckily was unsuccessful. Bill did convince them to let him take a couple of pictures wearing the hat, though. Leonard thought he looked pretty good in it, actually, although it did look a little incomplete without the full red uniform.

“This one is pretty alien city-like,” said Walter.

“What,” said Nichelle. “Bill in a hat?”

“Ha, ha,” said Bill. He turned to look at the pavilion, an upside-down pyramid of glass. “You’re right, though. Maybe it’s a Masonic symbol. Or a signal to whoever out there might be watching.”

Leonard did not even engage. But he couldn’t help humming the song to himself as they went through the doors. He usually forgot that Bill was from Montreal, but Bill had disappeared the night before to visit his parents and sisters and got back to the hotel late. Leonard wondered what they were like. Was Bill’s mother quiet, or was she the source of Bill’s moody exuberance? What was he like when he was with them? Leonard wished he could have met Bill’s family. He would have liked to sit at their table and watch Bill joke with his sisters. The magazines always liked to say that the cast was like a family, when they weren’t drumming up scandal, but of course they weren’t really a family. They were colleagues in close quarters. More like travel companions.

In the Arts Center, the photographer had them all take some photographs with the sculptures. Bill stood behind a giant bronze bearded mask of sadness, while Walter peered through the eyes of a face with a contorted smile. Nichelle pretended to be crushed by a spinning sculpture of four hourglasses, their sand falling back and forth. “Come on, Leonard,” she called. “Save me from the dastardly sands of time!”

Leonard sighed, and then walked over to join her. After all, he had enjoyed the film the day before. He couldn’t stand on the sidelines forever. And he still had a large number of stamps to collect on his Expo passport.

 

_iv. The US pavilion_

Somehow Leonard ended up sitting on the seat next to Bill on the Minirail. When it turned the corner abruptly, Bill’s shoulder pressed into Leonard’s, momentarily pinning him against the side of the car. Bill leaned over Leonard to point at something down on the ground. “Look at that!” he said. Below them was a procession of brightly costumed people, playing some jangling instruments that Leonard could barely hear over the sound of the wind and the blood rushing in his ears.

“We’re about to go through the US Pavilion,” he said. Bill sat back down.

In front of them George was pointing out to Walter all the interesting bits of the pavilion they were going to visit in just a few minutes. “And we’ll definitely be going up that escalator,” George said. “It’s gigantic!”

When they finally got off the Minirail, Leonard found that he actually was a little excited to see the pavilion. The dome was so pleasingly geometric. And the escalator was, he had to admit, fairly impressive.

He turned to Bill and smiled. “Where would you like to go, Bill?” he said.

“Straight to the moon,” replied Bill, and took hold of Leonard’s sleeve to drag him to exciting new places. Leonard pulled back and then thought, why not? Why not go to the moon, if they could?

 

_v. The Vulcan pavilion_

There was no Vulcan pavilion. But maybe there would be, in the future.


End file.
